Month: April 2018

After my blog post a couple weeks ago where I roasted asparagus (with tilapia), a good friend reached out to me to rave about roasting vegetables.

During our back and forth, she mentioned that one of her newly discovered favorites was roasted radishes. The idea intrigued me, as did her description of their taste as “so sweet and caramely.”

I made a mental note to try it at some vague point in the future, but I admit I didn’t immediately go out and seek a recipe or even just put radishes on my grocery list. And yet, just a few days later I was scrolling Twitter when I found a sheet pan recipe from Epicurious that included roasted potatoes, and yes, radishes.

Sheet pan paprika chicken with roast vegetables ingredients.

Even better, it combined them with a roast chicken and my list of sheet pan roast chicken recipes has been growing, and I hadn’t yet made one. And, if that all wasn’t enough, the food was flavored with a simple sauce that was mostly paprika, garlic, and mayonnaise.

I decided right then it’d be my next blog post.

It was perhaps a bit ambitious to make it on a weeknight, but I was determined. And if I’m honest, it still wasn’t that bad. It would have been better if the timing listed in the recipe was enough to be safe that the chicken was cooked through instead of an additional 10 to 15 minutes. But otherwise, there was a lot of down time between steps, enough that I could do dishes, even.

And the end result couldn’t have tasted better. The chicken was perfect; the potatoes sufficiently roasted; and the radishes — wow, they just burst with flavor and juices. It was an amazing combination, made better by the addition of a simple salsa verde that used up the radish greens.

I can say I’ll be returning to roast radishes, and this recipe, again.

So many good flavors combined. Nom noms.

Here’s what I did, tweaking the recipe a bit:

Ingredients

1 whole chicken

½ c. mayonnaise,

1 T. paprika (smoked if possible),

4 cloves garlic, divided

Salt and pepper, to taste

1 lb. golden potatoes, cut into fourths or eighths

2 bunches radishes, halved, reserving greens

1 bunch cilantro, with tender stems

1 bunch parsley, with tender stems

⅔ c. olive oil

Zest from 1 lemon

Juice from 1 lemon

Directions

Place oven rack in the middle of the oven, and heat to 425 degrees.

In a small bowl, combine the mayonnaise, paprika, half the garlic cloves, and salt and pepper. Once mixed, move 2 to 3 T. of the mix into a large bowl (it will ultimately be mixed with the vegetables so bigger bowls are better).

Pat the inside and outside of the chicken dry. Place on a large sheet pan with rimmed edges. Coat the mayonnaise mix from the small bowl under the skin of the chicken and outside it, including on legs. Tie together the legs with kitchen twine.

Bake the chicken for about 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the vegetables. Toss the potatoes and radishes with the reserved mayonnaise mixture in the large bowl.

After 25 minutes, reduce the oven temperature to 400 degrees, and remove the chicken from oven. In a single layer, add the potatoes and radishes to the pan around the chicken.

Continue to bake for another 20 to 25 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through.

Meanwhile, in a blender, mix together the parsley, cilantro, radish leaves, olive oil, lemon zest, and lemon juice, the remaining garlic cloves, and salt and pepper. Blend until coarsely chopped.

Once chicken is cooked through, transfer it to a cutting board and let cool for 15 minutes before carving. Serve the chicken with the roasted vegetables and salsa verde, and enjoy!

I discovered the joys of tofu as a college student trying Thai food for the very first time. But I could never really figure out how to cook the tofu so that it came out like the wonderful pad see-ew or Pad Thai I got at restaurants. If I’m honest, I still haven’t mastered it.

So, instead, I’ve found an alternative way to make tofu that tastes amazing, has a million uses, and yes, even works in noodle dishes. That’s right; it’s baked tofu.

Baked tofu ingredients.

The thing is frying tofu just right is very difficult, but baked tofu is about impossible to mess up.

Plus, it comes pre-flavored with the saltiness of soy sauce and the spiciness of sambal oelek. Oh, and there’s wine. And that, combined with time, is about all it takes to transform the flavorless, spongy soy protein into something that is good enough to eat by itself.

I couldn’t even tell you where I initially found the recipe, but I know the blog post similarly raved about the ease. And frankly, I think I added the sambal oelek. I just know that I make it often enough, and it’s easy enough that this is the first time I’ve written it down.

My favorite uses for it are for spring rolls, stir fry (but keep it separate, otherwise it absorbs the liquid), and simple vegetable wraps. But options are endless as long as you have the delightful base.

I used these little guys to make *both* spring rolls and stir fry this week. Yum!

Here’s what I did:

Ingredients

1 (18 oz.) container tofu (extra firm is preferred but firm will work in a pinch)

¼ c. soy sauce

¼ c. white wine (or water, or cooking sherry)

1 heaping T. sambal oelek (usually found in the Asian section, or Sriracha will work in a pinch)

1 T. sesame oil (optional)

Canola oil

Directions

Open and drain the tofu. Then, press it to drain more of the liquid for at least an hour. I’ve worked out a system where I use the sheet pan as the catch for the excess liquid, then place an upside-down rounded plate on top of the sheet pan, put the tofu on the plate, and then use a heavy lid like for a Dutch oven or another plate with a weight on top to press the tofu. (This can also be done a day in advance, and store the drained tofu in a Tupperware.)

Once the tofu is strained, cut it into 15 to 20 long slices. Again, I use the overturned plate to do my cutting so I don’t dirty more dishes.

Rinse and dry the sheet pan, and then coat it with canola oil. Place the slices of tofu on the sheet pan in a single layer. Brush on about half of the soy sauce mixture, and let sit for 5 minutes so the tofu absorbs most of the flavorful liquid, Turn over the slices carefully, and brush the remaining sauce on the other side. Let it absorb into the tofu for another 5 minutes. It’s OK if not all the liquid absorbs.

I usually spray with a little more oil because I’m paranoid it’ll stick.

Bake the tofu for 15 minutes, take out of the oven, and *carefully* flip over the slices. Bake for another 15 to 20 minutes until nice and browned and the liquid absorbed. Let cool slightly, and enjoy!

So sue me, my first fish recipe comes too late for Lent. But I think this tilapia and asparagus dinner is delicious any time of year.

The recipes come from my mom, and as far as I know she doesn’t necessarily make them together; they just happen to combine the same flavor base that make them work well together. They also just happen to combine some of the best flavors out there — garlic, cayenne, butter, and olive oil. That’s right, two kinds of fat. Yummy!

Tilapia and asparagus sheet pan ingredients.

Mom gave me the tilapia recipe when I was first starting out to cook. Frozen tilapia isn’t overly expensive, it keeps, and this makes for an easy meal when you’re just starting to learn to cook. The asparagus recipe is a long time favorite, as it combines the above flavors with a good deep roasting that makes them impossible to resist. If I ever have any extra asparagus lying around, which is rare, this is how I make ‘em. So, it seemed obvious to combine them into one simple and healthy-ish meal.

Just add some stove-top grain dish, and you’ve got a full meal that tastes great.

So much yummy goodness.

Here’s what I did:

Ingredients

4 fillets tilapia (fresh is best but costly)

1 bunch asparagus

4 T. butter, divided

4 T. olive oil, divided

4-5 cloves garlic, minced, divided (I was lazy and used the jarred stuff but whatever works)

Cayenne pepper, to taste

Salt, optional (I used salted butter so skipped it, but you may want to add more or definitely add some if you use unsalted butter)

Directions

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Remove woody ends of asparagus, and spread out over about half the sheet pan. Top with half the olive oil, half the butter, and half the garlic. Sprinkle with cayenne if desired. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.

Remove the sheet pan. On the other half of the sheet pan, dot half the remaining butter and half the remaining olive oil on the sheet pan. Add the tilapia fillets on top. Top with the remaining butter and olive oil, and the garlic; sprinkle generously with cayenne pepper, to taste. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until the tilapia is cooked through.

Serve over a grain, spooning on the garlic, butter, oil mix as desired, and enjoy!

My health has been shite for the past month, and so I’ve been relying more heavily on fast and easy recipes, and also relatively healthy.

So, I was so pleased to come across a food blogger — Chelsea’s Messy Apron — who had a sheet pan recipe that met all of my qualifications. My only qualm was it didn’t leave enough leftovers for someone as ill and lazy as me, but that was more easily remedied than my chronic ailment.

It was so easy that I decided to have some fun — at least fun for me — by racing to see whether I could get the recipe ready in less time than it would take to make the brown rice I would serve with my chicken and vegetable meal.

Sheet pan balsamic chicken ingredients.

Alas, I did not, but the delays were my own. Mostly, my damn desire to double the recipe meant the chicken crowded the sheet pan and cooked more slowly. The side benefit was the veggies had a nice crisp to them.

Still, the recipe was a treat and one I’ll return to again.

The best part was the ease at which flavor was added. Balsamic vinegar and Italian dressing combined to form a marinade, coating and dipping sauce that worked wonderfully. Another benefit is that any veggie combination would work, so it works to clip up what’s in the fridge.

Next time, maybe though, I’ll spread it onto two sheet pans so I can beat the brown rice.

Mix together the balsamic vinegar and dressing. Pour a third of the mixture into a Ziploc bag with the chicken and marinate for at least 30 minutes or up to 6 hours. Split the remaining mixture into two bowls.

Place veggies on the sheet pan, and mix in the herbs, spices, and salt and pepper, as well as 4-5 tablespoons of olive oil. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes while the chicken marinates.

When chicken is ready, move veggies to the side and place the strips in the center of the sheet pan. Brush a third of the marinade onto the chicken (and vegetables), and bake for another 15 minutes or so until the chicken is cooked through.

Serve the meal with the remaining marinade/sauce and serve over rice or another grain, if desired. Enjoy!